THE MASTER PLAN
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060911fa_fact3
by LAWRENCE WRIGHT
For the new theorists of jihad, Al Qaeda is just the beginning.
Issue of 2006-09-11
Posted 2006-09-04
Even as members of Al Qaeda watched in exultation while the Twin Towers
fell and the Pentagon burned on September 11, 2001, they realized that
the pendulum of catastrophe was swinging in their direction. Osama bin
Laden later boasted that he was the only one in the group's upper
hierarchy who had anticipated the magnitude of the wound that Al Qaeda
inflicted on America, but he also admitted that he was surprised by the
towers' collapse. His goal, for at least five years, had been to goad
America into invading Afghanistan, an ambition that had caused him to
continually raise the stakes-the simultaneous bombings of the United
States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in August, 1998, followed by
the attack on an American warship in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in
October, 2000. Neither of those actions had led the United States to
send troops to Afghanistan. After the attacks on New York and
Washington, however, it was clear that there would be an overwhelming
response. Al Qaeda members began sending their families home and
preparing for war.
Two months later, the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which had
given sanctuary to bin Laden, was routed, and the Al Qaeda fighters in
Tora Bora were pummelled. Although bin Laden and his chief lieutenants
escaped death or capture, nearly eighty per cent of Al Qaeda's
members in Afghanistan were killed. Worse, Al Qaeda's cause was
repudiated throughout the world, even in Muslim countries, where the
indiscriminate murder of civilians and the use of suicide operatives
were denounced as being contrary to Islam. The remnants of the
organization scattered and were on the run. Al Qaeda was essentially
dead.
"Paul Kennedy" OR "Paul M. Kennedy"
http://news.google.com/news?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22Paul%20Kennedy%22%20OR%20%22Paul%20M.%20Kennedy%22&btnG=Search&sa=N&tab=gn
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=%22Paul+Kennedy%22+OR+%22Paul+M.+Kennedy%22&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=nw
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Paul+Kennedy%22+OR+%22Paul+M.+Kennedy%22&btnG=Search+Directory&hl=en&cat=gwd%2FTop
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=%22Paul+Kennedy%22+OR+%22Paul+M.+Kennedy%22&btnG=Search+Blogs
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22Paul+Kennedy%22+OR+%22Paul+M.+Kennedy%22&start=0&scoring=d&num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&
.
|
